


Those Dreams

by AbbyRosette



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 02:59:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1153957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbbyRosette/pseuds/AbbyRosette
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a shock to find out that this unknown figure from his dreams was real. Armin liked to think of himself as someone who was above superstition. He must have seen her face before. It must have been floating in his subconscious. It had to have been a coincidence. </p>
<p>But it was more of a shock to find how the more time he spent with her, the more his dreams of her dimmed. The sunlight was gone. The music died out. Something about his dreams increasingly unsettled him. They were unsatisfying echoes of some unseeable past. What was an echo but a hollow repetition of what was once whole? It was like she had poisoned him from the inside out.</p>
<p>But he didn’t want it to stop.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> Reincarnation!AU that takes place about a century after the eradication of the titans. Society has branched out beyond the walls and is working toward regaining the social order and technologies from before the rule of the titans. (Assuming that SnK takes place in the future and they just lost modern technological advancements once they retreated behind the walls.)

The night bore the heavy stillness that came with summer’s peak. Tent windows were zipped open, mosquitoes buzzing wildly at the mesh they could not breach. The Trost High School senior class campout —which technically occurred before the start of the school year— had brought them to a beautiful forest where some of their classmates had a difficult time understanding that the world was not their bathroom. 

The whole thing was cheesy and gross. School spirit was for those saps who would cling to these four years for the rest of their grim lives. But…when Armin came out to say good night to her unironically wearing his letterman’s jacket (dappled with academic honors), it didn’t seem as embarrassing for one glowing moment. 

Of course, they call those moments glowing because they are fleeting. 

——

Brittle bones splintered beneath her weight. Rubbery sinews and tendons were pliable under her boot soles. A uniform she didn’t recognize shielded her tense body from the gore, but it could not protect her from the black velvet void that seemed to close in around her. Unsure feet carried her forward. There had to be an end to this place. An end to this vast sea of death. 

She wasn’t certain why, but she felt as though she were wading through her own sin.

Petal-soft lips clamped into a hard line and her sight blurred at the edges. It might have been from the smell —the Godawful stench of endless decay that clung to her like a second skin— or it might have been from the unimaginable guilt that hung onto her back with a monstrous weight. She’d been to this place before, she was sure of it. And yet she still couldn’t predict what would happen next. 

The faded colors of a flag shredded beyond honor’s restoration jumped out at her from the despair. An insignia like fractured wings was stained with the crimson wine of blood. Finally, her knees gave way and she was consumed in the fold. Her hands sought to soften the fall, coming painfully to rest on the cold metal hilt of a sword. For a sickening moment, she felt the blade delve further into still-warm flesh. 

Still-warm. 

Still alive.

But only just.

Fighting against the desire to close her eyes and withdraw, she investigated. And immediately wished she hadn’t. 

"A-armin—" 

One of his hands wrapped loosely around the unforgiving weapon where it pierced his chest. Eyes that had once been alight with wonder appeared flat as he stared straight ahead into nothing. She moved to trace his jawline with trebling fingers. She felt as if she was the one to break his body —to shatter his spirit beyond recognition. An ugly and inescapable feeling of responsibility resonated through her. 

"Armin! Armin listen to me—" 

It was then that one final breath shuddered through him. 

Your fault. Every nerve ending screamed it at her. Your fault. Your fault. Your fault. 

But she couldn’t understand why. 

A new shadow spread over her, blanketing his eternally stilled body in a rick darkness that she could not comprehend. Colossal footsteps echoed through the void and she fought to tear her gaze from the broken boy beneath her. Finally, she was able to escape the rapture. A roar rang in her ears and chilled her bones. 

It was a titan. Though their species had been eradicated a century ago, she knew with every fiber of her being that this was a titan in front of her. Scraggly brown hair hung around his face, a disjointed line of teeth glinting wickedly in his mouth. The wrath of this field of corpses seemed to froth over in his bright green eyes. She bowed her head, pulling Armin into her lap.

This was her penance before her. 

——

He was shaken awake by cold hands. Blinking away the nondescript dreams of a restless sleep, his gaze came into focus on her face. She hovered over him, hair spilling around her face. She looked to him like a specter in the pale moonlight. He feared moving. If he reached toward her, she would evaporate into fog and slip right through his fingers. 

Somehow, he felt that deep in the bottom of his stomach. Like he’d been chasing her for much longer than he’d ever known her. The sensation swept over him with increasing frequency. He’d dreamed about her before they even met. She was the ghost of a smile, a game of chess he couldn’t quite figure out. She was the wind that played such soft music between the boughs in the forest. Her laughter was sunlight as he ran his fingertips through her silken hair. 

It was a shock to find out that this unknown figure from his dreams was real. Armin liked to think of himself as someone who was above superstition. He must have seen her face before. It must have been floating in his subconscious. It had to have been a coincidence. 

But it was more of a shock to find how the more time he spent with her, the more his dreams of her dimmed. The sunlight was gone. The music died out. Something about his dreams increasingly unsettled him. They were unsatisfying echoes of some unseeable past. What was an echo but a hollow repetition of what was once whole? It was like she had poisoned him from the inside out.

But he didn’t want it to stop. 

"A-annie?" The question was hardly audible, the crickets outside seeming louder. He glanced over to his tent mate, Eren, to make sure he hadn’t been disturbed. "What’s the matter?" 

He didn’t ask why she was there or tell her that she wasn’t allowed in his tent. He knew immediately that something was wrong, and he wasted no time in getting to that. She appreciated that about him more than words could express. Her lips pulled down into a tight frown. Something inside her was unsettled, a darkness dislodging from the hidden depths of her heart. She had wanted to make sure that he was still alive. That fluttering of his heart was so important to her, and she couldn’t even name why.

In fact, she could feel it then. It skipped beneath her palm in little nervous bursts.

Right where the sword had been. 

It would be a crazy thing to confess. Her gaze slid away from him, “It was a nightmare. Nothing more.” 

Suddenly, his heartbeat reverberated in her chest. Warm arms wrapped around her shoulders and shielded her from the coolness of night. He had pulled her tight against him, the sleeping bag their only barrier. His eyes were wide in the darkness, though she couldn’t see them. He knew the feeling those dreams planted in your head. The feeling that you couldn’t even trust yourself —that your mind would twist everything you loved into an unrecognizable monster. 

If she was having those dreams in the first place. 

He didn’t know if he had the courage to ask. But he did have the courage to embrace her. He had the courage to whisper her name into what remained of the August night. He had the courage to plant soft kisses like rosebuds along her jawline before stopping just below her lips.

He did not have the courage to continue. 

Words pressed against his reluctant lips.

I dreamed of you every night. 

I thought you were a figment of my imagination. 

I watched the sunlight leave your eyes. 

I heard the music leave your voice.

Don’t make me do it again.


End file.
